Let me start off by saying, no. Not EVERY conspiracy theory is plausible or credible. There are tons of silly conspiracy theories out there that are silly and just plain laughable. However, a lot of conspiracies have turned out to be true. The best examples I can think of are:
1. Project MK-Ultra
2. Tuskegee Syphilis Conspiracy
3. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident
4. The Snow White Conspiracy
5. The CIA Drug Running Conspiracy
6. Operation Northwood
7. Operation Paperclip Conspiracy
8. COINTELPRO Conspiracy
9. Watergate conspiracy
10. Tobacco industry conspiracy
People often use the term conspiracy theory/theorists as a pejorative but as I have demonstrated, sometimes they are true. Calling someone a “conspiracy theorists” is not an indictment on their position or character.
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You forgot about Santa Claus
A broken clock is indeed correct twice a day.
My favorite conspiracy theory is the idea that the stigma towards conspiracy theories has been carefully crafted by the powers-that-be. They invent 95 percent of the more outlandish ones themselves to discredit the other 5 percent.
You’re confusing conspiracies with conspiracy theories.
(And many of the examples you list aren’t really conspiracies and didn’t really have conspiracy theories about them, though they may play into certain ongoing conspiracy theories.)
It’s unironically a conspiracy to dismiss any conspiracy to deter you acting or thinking against the powers that be.
I think what separates people who understand that the government does some shady fucking stuff is they usually have a combination of some level of verifiable evidence in addition to plausibility.
“The Government Assassinated <insert activist here>” – entirely plausible and the government has a track record of such. I wouldn’t call them a “Conspiracy Theorist” unless they were like wildly obsessed with it and had a dedicated room with red string running all about.
“The Government is run by lizard people” – not plausible, no evidence, crack pot theory.
There are conspiracies all around us. Organized crime is essentially a conspiracy.
The mistake most conspiracy theorists make is trying to combine all conspiracies into an overarching master conspiracy. Geoffrey Epstein being a CIA asset who is running a honey pot scheme is plausible; but trying to connect him to something else, like 9/11, makes conspiracy theories fall apart.
The ones that have anything to do with flat earth, alien demons, or anything that sounds like something out of a bad sci Fi movie or anime are the ones I find difficult to take seriously
I don’t know about of all of them but there was no “conspiracy theory” about Watergate, they got caught in the act by a security guard trying to repair or retrieve some of the devices. It was just an uncovered conspiracy
Conspiracy theorist is a pejorative for good reason because it’s mostly applied to the “they’re making frogs gay through osmosis” crowd. People actually uncovering conspiracies are investigators, just because you believe a conspiracy theory whether it’s true or not doesn’t matter one way or the other.
There’s a conspiracy theory that The CIA invented the term Conspiracy Theory as a means of discrediting conspiracy theorists. I have no proof one way or the other. But I believe that one.
Different topic. A conspiracy theory is only theory until it is proven correct. As it would appear, has happened with some of OPs list.
The difference is, the conspiracies you gave as examples aren’t things that people knew were happening until after the fact, and then all the info came out.
Stupid conspiracies are ones that everyone knows about but the tin foil hat crowd has to come up with a made up alternative explanation for.
Conspiracy theories aren’t inherently anything. It’s just a framework to explain how actors may have orchestrated events. Some of them are well reasoned and supported, some of them are not. Some of them are impossible to weigh because there aren’t enough known facts. You have to take them case by case.
Being inherently conspiratorial and prone to bias towards a conspiracy where a non-conspiratorial explanation is as or more plausible is where people get into trouble. Then they start seeing conspiracies everywhere.
Even if they are true, they are inherently dismissible until there is proof.
What’s the difference between a conspiracy theory and the truth?
Answer: 18-24 months according to the legacy news media
I remember going to gun shows and there would always be a guy with a table in a corner selling conspiracy type pamphlets and books. It was stuff like aliens and lizard people, tesla’s free energy devices that the government was suppressing and stuff like that. Of course he was also selling copies of Mein kampf and the turner diaries. Post 9/11 the conspiracy stuff got more weird with all the 911 truth garbage, chemtrails, and Obama birthers which seemed to replace fun stuff like Planet X/nibiru, John titor, Bigfoot, ect.
Good list.
The one I’m interested in is the use of psychics and “remote viewing” by the US military which was humorously chronicled in the George Clooney movie “Men Who Stare at Goats”.
I know a guy (I don’t mean that in a Better Call Saul kind of way) who claims to have been part of that program (not the movie).
He says he still has “remote viewing” skills and also offers instruction in the method which he also claims is still being used by various military organizations.
I think there’s a difference between conspiracies and theories of a conspiracy and conspiracy theories.
If you’re an investigative journalist, you can have a theory. If you had something happen to you or witnessed it, you can have the germination of a theory.
But if you’re looking at the Internet and find 3 articles from unsubstantiated sources, you have a conspiracy theory.
If you disagree with government propaganda you automatically get labeled a conspiracy theorist
One place I think this really goes wrong is when people believe that everyone needs to be planning together to make a conspiracy work. Often times people in positions of power are just incentivized all in the same direction. They don’t need to meet and plan to hold the conspiracy.
For example I don’t think Marlboro and Newport CEOs ever had to sit down in a room together to talk about a conspiracy to sell more cigarettes. They probably all knew what they were doing without anyone having to say it explicitly. I think this is the case with many conspiracies and where the theorists get into trouble.
The theorists like to come up with elaborate plans for lots of things, where I think often times you just need powerful people will shared incentives. You don’t need secret meetings or plans.
Just because something ended up being true doesn’t mean it was reasonable to believe when conspiracy theorists were talking about it. The issue isn’t whether or not some theories end up being true; it’s whether or not the theorist is providing enough evidence, expertise, and critical thought to warrant belief in their theory. The vast majority of the time, they are completely bereft of all 3 of those things.
The time to believe something is when there is evidence in support of it and not a minute sooner. This fact is independent of whether or not someone is a conspiracy theorist, but conspiracy theorists have a long history of being full of shit and not understanding their topic so healthy skepticism is always wise.
>a lot of conspiracies have turned out to be true.
Not quite: None of these were conspiracy theories. MK Ultra was not on anybody’s radar, until a US Senate committee (i.e. the government) revealed it. The committee was convened in direct response to NY Times reports (i.e. mainstream media) that the CIA had conducted illegal operations on US citizens on US soil (Operation CHAOS), which tried to find “foreign interference” with various civil rights and progressive movements.
Not one “conspiracy theory” has turned out to be true. Actual conspiracies do occur, and their whistleblowers are often discounted as peddling conspiracy theories. But you have to distinguish these real conspiracies from conspiracy theories.
Conspiracy theories are like pseudoscience, wellness/snake oil sales, and religious charlatanry: People want the prestige and attention that comes with being an expert in something valuable, without having the skills or work ethic to actually become an expert. So they “question” something so obvious that we don’t keep its justifications in the front of our mind, and expect people to drop what they’re doing to give them attention and prestige as “part of the debate.” If it’s historical or political in nature, it’s a conspiracy theory.
Everything can be a conspiracy theory if you failed science in high school.
My personal favorite conspiracy theory is that all the obviously fake conspiracy theories are put out there by the same people that are behind the real conspiracies, just to throw people off and label all conspiracy theories as crazy
I liked Contrapoints’ video about that, she went over the characteristics of what she calls conspiracism as a way of thinking rather than the idea that people can conspire, and I think that’s a good way of distinguishing between someone who dabbles in fun “what ifs” and someone who becomes a full-blown tinfoil hatter
Without going into much detail, the big three are:
It’s pretty interesting and I thought she laid it out very clearly
I want to touch on the list of “conspiracies that were true”:
Did we find out about ANY of them because the signs were there and brave truth seekers put all the pieces together and figured it out? Or did we find out about them through whistleblowers or even just because the government themselves declassified the information?
Conspiracies exist but I don’t know of a single instance of conspiracy theorists actually uncovering a real conspiracy. They use the existence of actual conspiracies to try and support their own wild assertions about how literally everything is connected by one evil cabal
MK Ultra is experimenting on people to develop better interrogation techniques and make our spies less susceptible to interrogations. It is what intelligence agencies do. It is a routine practice that should not have been controversial.
Tuskegee syphillis experiment started out as just as a basic experiment testing how to treat late stage syphillis. At the time of the study informed consent was still decades away from being a common term.
The Gulf of To kin was a real conspiracy, but not a long lived successful one. Information started leaking out about it in only 3 years and it was during an active war.
Operation Snow White was a conspiracy that only lasted 3 years and resulted in 11 convictions.
CIA drug running conspiracy is untrue.
Operation Northwoods was an idea that never happened.
Operation Paperclip was routine military intelligence.
COInTRLPRO. Was an undercover operation that went too far. Given the amount of political violence at the time something like it wasn’t a bad idea.
Watergate conspiracy didn’t last long and resulted
In convictions for many of the conspirators.
Tobacco industry conspiracy was not successful as by 1957 the surgeon general had declared that smoking g caused lung cancer and there were 7000 studies that showed it was bad for health by the time the famous surgeon general’s warning came out in 1964. Even King James in 1604 had declared it dangerous to the lungs .
Aside from intelligence agencies whose entire purpose is conspiracy your examples show how hard it is to maintain a large and long running conspiracy.
It’s true. Elvis fell off Shergar right in front of Princess Diana’s car.
I think that there’s something to the CIA wanting JFK dead. But the evidence points towards Oswald beating them to it. We may not have their plans, but lots of evidence conveniently disappeared.